Necktie holding device



July 25, 1961 B. R. HODGE NECKTIE HOLDING DEVICE Filed Aug. 15, 1959 ATE.

2 m a mH 9 T D 09mm, 56%,?W1- W QTTOENE Y5 United States Patent O" 2,993,249 NECKTIE HOLDING DEVICE Bernard R. Hodge, 752 West End Ave., New York, NY. Filed Aug. 13, 1959, Ser. No. 833,483 6 Claims. (Cl. 24-49) This invention relates to necktie holding devices and has for its principal object the provision of such a device of improved construction which is easily and inexpensively produced, which permits a tie to be easily knotted thereon, and which may be readily and securely attached to and detached from a collar.

A necktie holder made in accordance with the invention comprises a unitary sheet of flexible form-retaining material, such as sheet metal, which is bent along a fold portion to form front and rear sections integral with each other. The front section has a slot extending generally parallel to the fold portion for securing a necktie in knotted form on the front section. The rear section has integral wing pieces engageable with the front of the collar band and also has an integral holding tab extending between these wing pieces from the fold portion and engageable with the rear of the collar band to secure the holder to this band. A four-in-hand tie may be knotted on the front section by passing it through the slot, folding it around the front section, and then passing it again through the slot, whereby the front section gives body to the knot and holds the tie securely in the desired knotted form. Alternatively, a pre-formed bow tie may be secured to the front section by means of stitching, or the like, extending through the slot or through a pair of parallel slots in the front section.

In the preferred construction, the front section of the necktie holder has tie-gripping corners protruding from the fold portion of the bent sheet, the sheet having cuts extending toward each other from opposite lateral edges of the sheet and defining the ends of the fold portion, so that the tie-gripping corners are formed by the portions of the front section bordering on the cuts. These corners, by engaging the upper portion of the tie knot from inside the knot, function to hold the knot in position to conceal the tie holder when it is applied to the collar. Also, I prefer to provide the front section with a lip extending along the lower edge of the slot (the edge remote from the fold portion) and protruding outwardly from the front section so as to give further body to the knot.

An outstanding feature of the present invention, as will be apparent from the foregoing, is that the necktie holding device can be made in a simple, inexpensive manner from a sheet of metal, or the like. More particularly, the flat sheet can be stamped to form the slot, the cuts defining the ends of the fold line, and the wings and intermediate tab extending from the fold line; and then the sheet is bent along the fold line to form the front and rear sections extending at an acute angle to each other, the wings being bent, if desired, to conform to the normal curvature of the collar band.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the accompanying drawing in which FIG. 1 is a perspective fragmentary view showing a necktie as it appears when applied, by means of the holding device of the present invention, to the neck band of the shirt of a wearer;

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but showing the collar tabs raised, to better illustrate the relationship between the holding device and the knot of a four-in-hand tie;

FIG. 3 is a plan View of the blank used for making a preferred form of the new holding device, showing the blank after the stamping operation but prior to bending the blank along the fold line;

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FIG. 4 is a plan view of the holding device made by bending the blank shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view on the line 5-5 in FIG. 4;

FIGS. 6 and 7. are front and rear views, respectively, of the holding device shown in FIGS. 4 and 5; and

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a collar to which the holding device is applied, the device being shown, for illustrative purposes, without the necktie.

Referring to FIG. 3, the blank 10, from which the necktie holding device is made, consists of a sheet of material which is resilient but which may be easily bent and formed, such as thin-gauge sheet metal. Extending toward each other from opposite lateral edges of the blank are cuts 11 which, together with a fold line 12, extend across the blank inter-mediate its ends. Thus, the cuts 1 1 define the ends of the fold line 12. At opposite sides of the fold line 12 are what I hereinafter reform as front and rear sections 13 and '14, respectively, which are formed by bending the blank along the fold line 12, as will be described in more detail presently.

The front section 13 of the blank 10 is formed with a slot 15 extending generally parallel to the fold line 12. The lower edge of slot 15 (that is, the edge remote from fold line "12) is in the form of a lip 16 protruding into the slot intermediate its ends. The front section 13 tapers somewhat from the fold line 12, so that the side edges of this section slant toward each other in the direction away from the fold line.

The rear section 14 of the blank 10' is formed with twothe cuts 1 1 and the slots 15 and 19, in addition to forming the outer configuration of the blank.

The blank 10 is folded along the fold line 12 to bend the front and rear sections 13-14 at an acute angle to each other, as shown in FIGS. 47. Also, the tab 18, at its reduced inner or neck portion 18a, is bent out of the plane of the wings 17 in the direction away from the front section 13, as best shown in FIGS. 4-5. In addition, the lip 116 is bent forwardly out of the plane of front section 13, that is, in the direction away from rear section 14, as best shown in FIG. 5; and the outer side portions of the wings 17 adjacent the cuts 11 are bent away from the front section 13, as shown in FIG. 4, thereby isolating the sharp upper corners 20 of the front section.

The necktie holding device is applied to a conventional collar 22 having an inner neck band 23, which may be held closed by a button 24 secured to one end portionof the neck band and adapted to be received in a buttonhole (not shown) in the other end portion of the band. To attach the tie-holding device to the collar, the collar tabs 25 are raised, as shown in FIG. 2, and the tab 18 of the holding device is inserted within the collar to the rear of the button 24, the wings 17 engaging the outside of the collar band at opposite sides of the button 24. Thus, the tie-holding device is clamped securely on the collar by the outward pressure of tab 18 and the inward pressure of wings 17. As will be apparent, the tie-holding device may be easily removed from the collar by simply lifting the device to disengage the holding tab 18 from behind the button 24 of the collar band.

Before the tie-holding device is applied to the collar as previously described, a necktie 26 is knotted on the front section 13 by passing the tie through the slot 15 with the wider end of the tie in front of the section 13, then folding the narrower end portion of the tie around the side edges of the front section 13, and then passing Patented ,July 25, 1961 the latter end portion of the tie back through slot from the rear to the front of the section 13 so that the narrower end portion of the tie lies behind the wider end portion. A similar tie knotting arrangement is disclosed in US. Patent No. 2,798,226 dated July 9, 1957, although the tie as there shown does not extend through a slot in the tie-holding device.

With the necktie 26 applied to the tie-holding device as described above, the corners of the front section 13 lie within the upper portion of the knot and engage this upper portion at opposite sides of the knot to hold the latter against downward movement relative to the front section 13. Accordingly, the knot is held in a raised position on the front section 13 so as to conceal the tie-holding device when it is applied to the collar, as previously described. The tapered side edges of the front section 13 give the desired tapered form to the knot, and the forwardly protruding lip 16 serves to add body to the knot.

It will be apparent that once a necktie 26 is knotted on the tie-holding device, the tie may be attached to or detached from the collar repeatedly without any further knotting of the tie or any unknotting of the tie, which is obviously a distinct advantage.

While thenecktie 26 as shown is of the four-in-hand type, a pre-formed bow tie may be sceured to the holding device in lieu of the tie 26. This may be accomplished by stitching the bow tie to the front section 13 by means of stitches extending through the slot 15 and around the lower edge of section 13; or the latter may be provided with another slot (not shown) parallel to the slot 15, so that the stitching can extend around a portion of the section 13 which lies between the parallel slots.

I claim:

1. A necktie holder for attachment to a collar band, which comprises a unitary sheet of flexible form-retaining material bent along a fold portion to form front and rear sections integral with each other, the front section having a slot extending lengthwise generally parallel to said fold portion, said slot having a length substantially greater than its width and being of sufficient size for passage of a necktie therethrough, whereby the slot is adapted for securing a necktie in knotted form on said front section, the rear section having integral wing pieces engageable with the outside of the collar band and also having an integral holding tab extending between the wing pieces from said fold portion, said tab being displaced rearwardly relative to the adjacent edges of the wing pieces and being engageable with the inside of the collar band to secure the holder to said band.

2. A necktie holder according to claim 1, in which the front section has tie-gripping corners protruding from said fold portion.

3. A necktie holder according to claim 1, in which said front section extends at an acute angle to said rear section.

T 4. A necktie holder blank comprising a substantially flat sheet of flexible form-retaining material having cuts extending toward each other from opposite lateral edges of the blank, the cuts defining the ends of a fold line on which the blank is adapted to be bent, the blank having at one side of the fold line a slot extending generally parallel to the fold line, the blank having at the opposite side of the fold line a pair of wings and a tab disposed between the wings, the tab and wings extending away from the fold line and defining slots terminating substantially at the fold line, the wings overlapping the part of the blank lying at said one side of the fold line.

5. A necktie holder for attachment to a collar band, which comprises a unitary sheet of flexible form-retaining material bent along a fold portion to form front and rear sections integral with each other, the front section having a slot extending generally parallel to said fold portion for securing a necktie in knotted form on said front section, the rear section having integral wing pieces engageable with the front of the collar band and also having an integral holding tab extending between the wing pieces from said fold portion and engageable with the rear of the collar band to secure the holder to said band, said front section having a lip at the edge of the slot remote from said fold portion, the lip protruding outwardly from the plane of the front section.

6. A necktie holder for attachment to a collar band, which comprises a unitary sheet of flexible form-retaining material bent along a fold portion to form front and rear sections integral with each other, the front section having a slot extending generally parallel to said fold portion for securing a necktie in knotted form on said front section, the rear section having integral wing pieces engageable with the front of the collar band and also having an integral holding tab extending between the 'wing pieces from said fold portion and engageable with the rear of the collar band to secure the holder to said band, said front section extending at an acute angle to said rear section and having tie-gripping corners protruding from said fold portion, the front section having a lip at the edge of the slot remote from said fold portion and protruding outwardly from the plane of the front section.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 386,396 Frees July 17, 1888 624,997 Volstad May 16, 1899 811,455 Swanson Jan. 30, 1906 1,456,622 Crause May 29, 1923 FOREIGN PATENTS 547,361 France Sept. 20, 1922 

